Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Contemplating Eddie Rosario

Eddie Rosario cracked his left thumb on this
play in the 10th inning Saturday.

Eddie Rosario is deemed to have fractured his thumb on a dive into first base Saturday and is out for the remainder of the season.

It wasn't a good year for the outfielder. The slash line was pretty stable compared to last year, but the defense was noticably worse (albeit still superior to Robbie Grossman in left field).

The biggest problem: Rosario's walk to strikeout rate is still abysmal. He walked 12 times (and two of those intentional) and struck out 91 times in 354 plate appearances. This is why his on-base percentage is below .300.

You have to really hunt for reasons for optimism in his 2016. Yes, he hit over .300 after spending June in Triple A; but his BB/K ratio after his recall was still 9/60. "Minnesota high school math" here: he had three walks and 31 strikeouts before his demotion, basically one walk for every 10 strikeouts; after the demotion, 1.5 walks for every 10 strikeouts. For all the blather from Dick Bremer about Rosario's improved strike zone judgment, it doesn't show in the stats.

Rosario turns 25 in a week. He's had two partial seasons as more or less the regular left fielder, and it's still not clear that he deserves to be a regular major league outfielder. The Twins have been patient with his talent, but a more sabermetrically inclined operation might not be willing to give him more time to figure out what he's doing at the plate.